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Naruto: Training is My Ninja Way
Taiichi returned to the battlefield a few hours later and spent time carefully erasing anything that might point Sand in the wrong direction. Once the site looked like a straight-up Cloud-on-Cloud bloodbath, he left.
Thirteen Cloud shinobi dead. Two of them Jonin. The Raikage was going to feel that one. And with Cloud already planning to move on Sand, this kind of unexplained massacre would light the fuse perfectly. If everything went right, Leaf might even be able to force a ceasefire with Sand while Cloud and Sand tore each other apart.
By the time he used Flying Thunder God to jump back to the forward camp, the sun was already high. He headed straight for the main command tent to brief Jiraiya and Shikaku.
Inside, both men listened in stunned silence as Taiichi described the fight. They had expected a few targeted kills and some framing. They had not expected him to wipe out an entire Cloud strike team using nothing but wind release.
"You've been holding out on us," Jiraiya said, staring at him like he'd grown a second head. "I knew you were good with fire and water, but wind? At that level? Kid, you're starting to scare me."
Taiichi just scratched the back of his head and didn't bother explaining. Some things were better left unsaid.
Shikaku leaned forward, already thinking three moves ahead. "This changes everything. The Raikage won't sit still after losing that many elites. When Cloud hits Sand for real, we might finally get the breathing room we need. Maybe even force a truce with the desert rats while they're busy bleeding each other."
Jiraiya nodded, then suddenly remembered something. "By the way, you're grounded for a while. Medical camp needs you."
Taiichi frowned. "New poison?"
"Chiyo's work," Jiraiya confirmed. "Different strains hitting our people since this morning. Our antidote pills are barely touching it. We need you to figure this out before it spreads and kills morale."
Taiichi didn't argue. He headed straight for the medical tents.
The place was chaos. One entire side tent was full of screaming, vomiting, convulsing shinobi. Different symptoms for different toxins—some couldn't stop throwing up, others were in agony, a few had lost control of their bowels. The medical staff looked overwhelmed.
Taiichi threw on his white coat and immediately started barking orders. He split the patients by symptoms, called in extra hands from the main command, and created three shadow clones to start treating the worst cases. Then he grabbed every medical report from the last twelve hours and locked himself in the lab.
Chiyo had gotten creative. These weren't the same old poisons. The old woman still had some fight left in her.
While Taiichi buried himself in research, his teammates were still out on their own mission.
Yohei's team had been camped near the border for five days, watching for Sand reinforcements. Supplies were running low, so they decided to head back to camp and resupply.
They gathered under a rocky overhang. Yohei looked around at his squad.
"Anyone got anything new?"
Saori, Obito, and Rin all shook their heads. The border had been dead quiet.
Kakashi spoke up. "I spotted a four-man Sand chunin squad ten kilometers northeast. They came from Wind Country territory. Not carrying supplies, not acting like reinforcements. Something feels off."
Yohei considered it. "We're here to scout, not start fights we don't have to. Let's head back and report it. If command wants us to hit them, they'll send us back out."
Obito muttered something about wasted glory under his breath but didn't argue. They started packing up.
What none of them knew was that the Sand squad had already spotted Kakashi's earlier probe. They had been following him the entire time, and now they had the whole Leaf team in their sights.
The Sand Jonin leading them turned to the sensor ninja in their group.
"Fumi, confirm it. Are they the ones we've been hunting?"
The sensor opened his eyes slowly, chakra still humming around him.
"Yeah, Captain. It's them. The ones Lord Danzo's people warned us about."